I had someone asking about this…yesterday? Saturday? the past crazy weekend is a blur…but since I hadn’t tried it yet, I called over a co-worker of mine who is big into greens. He stated that he loved it, and said that it reminded him a bit of gyokuro, but that it is quite a bit sweeter. Which all made me more curious to try it myself. Since I’m feeling a bit under the weather at the moment (although I think now it might just be some inexplicable allergic reaction), green tea sounded nice.

And hey, this is quite nice.

I’m pretty sure my water was a smidge too hot when it hit the leaves, but nothing that made them un-salvageable. I’m drinking it unsweetened, but it doesn’t have a strong vegetal or grassy taste to it that would normally put me off the taste of an unsweetened green. There’s a few sweet notes in it

Oh my god, okay, it’s cooling now, and there’s some notes coming out that are really awesome. Scratch “some sweet notes,” there’s actually a lot of sweetness around the edges and maybe three-quarters back in the sip (is a spacial designation that specific utterly ridiculous? but I swear that is where it is) that is very pure, like golden honey. It’s kind of heavy, like cream…if you don’t mind sweetener, I bet a few drops of actual honey would really make that pop.

There’s another taste here though which is dominant, but which I was at a loss to describe. Autumn Hearth is the only other person who has reviewed this tea so far, and she described this tea as having a “umami” taste to it. I admit that I had no idea what that was, but I’ve seen several people describe green tea with it. It is clearly an important taste to understand, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Wikipedia sez:

“A savory taste […] Now it is widely accepted as the fifth basic taste. Umami represents the taste of the amino acid L-glutamate and 5’-ribonucleotides such as guanosine monophosphate (GMP) and inosine monophosphate (IMP). Although it can be described as a pleasant “brothy” or “meaty” taste with a long lasting, mouthwatering and coating sensation over the tongue, umami has no translation. […] Umami has a mild but lasting aftertaste difficult to describe. It induces salivation and a sensation of furriness on the tongue, stimulating the throat, the roof and the back of the mouth…"

Well! That must be it! That’s what I’m tasting. Thanks, Autumn! (Also, a combination of “sweet” and “umami” basically describes my entire diet…)

…Oops, work just called me in. On my day off, sigh. (We have a guy who is quitting, he probably won’t ever show up again.) So I gotta go, and cannot review a re-infusion of these leaves, so it will have to wait.

Still, I’m happy! I think I finally found a green tea that I like enough to replace that orchid-infused green from Teaopia.

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Bio

I’ve always been a tea drinker – I grew up drinking Tetley’s Orange Pekoe and their Chai, and considered myself to really like tea.

I’ve been working various retail jobs to put myself through higher education. One day at my store, a customer left a newly purchased bag of loose-leaf behind. We waited for three days for said customer to return, but they (likely not realizing where they had left their bag) did not return to claim the would-be brew. Too bad for them; lucky for me! I claimed the bag, took it home, and awkwardly made my first cup of loose-leaf tea with the only strainer we owned which was small enough.

I haven’t bothered with Tetley since. For the most part (and due to convenience), my patronage is limited to David’s Tea and Teavana. I also order from 52teas and Verdant Tea.

My rating system – hah, I don’t have a rating system. I rate teas a lot like Ebert rates movies. Everything’s relative.

I may often forget to mention it, but you can safely assume everything I drink is sweetened in one way or another – most rock sugar, or honey for green and white teas. I have not yet achieved drinking most tea clear. The few teas I drink unsweetened include milk oolong and genmaicha so far.